USB 3/SATA 6Gbps mATX boards? How long left to wait?

GHarris

GHarris

GHarris

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8 Oct 2009
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I was glad to see Overclockers beginning to stock the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 last Friday. I have been waiting for motherboards with USB3 and SATA 6Gb/s support to be released for quite a while now. The only trouble is, I am after a micro ATX board not a full-size ATX one. Does any one know anything, anything at all, about the prospect of such a motherboard coming into existence in the next few months?

Right now the only thing I have to go on is that mATX X58 motherboards came out in February-ish 2009 following the original ATX X58 releases in November 2008. I'm hoping that is some indication of what might happen here.

Oh and please don't point out the USB3/SATA6 PCI Express cards... with mATX you have fewer expansion slots to begin with without taking one up on something that could be on the board itself.

On the other hand, feel free to mock my bloody-mindedness. I'm currently sat here with an ancient PC counting the (many, many, many) seconds until the final unreleased piece of my next PC comes along. Call me a masochist but my next PC has to be just right. I just wish I didn't have to have so much patience!

Edit: Forgot to mention, I've already sent a webnote to OcUK and they said they didn't know of any USB3 mATX motherboards on the horizon. I have a feeling it's going to be a long winter xD
 
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My past experiance has shown that the longer you wait the more things come out that you want, as in - you now want USB 3 and sata6Gb/s but by the time you find something with them there be something else that catches your fancie and you find yourself waiting around longer lol
 
Thanks for your reply. I agree that endless waiting is always a danger but I have had a very strict wish list for a while now, and it has not changed in a long time. Nor will it, I am quite determined on this point :p. Besides which I'm deeply sick and tired slumming it on my old PC!

Core i7 processors,
ASUS Xonar ST/STX sound card,
1600MHz CL7 DDR3 RAM,
"something faster than the 2008 generation of graphics cards" (i.e. the 5870),
an extremely quiet 80-Plus-Gold power supply (the Seasonic X750),
a silent, less-than-huge case (the Antec Mini P180),
the Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler (though I'd have settled for the Megahalems too),
a 30-inch IPS monitor (which I bought from OcUK almost a year ago now!)...
...yep everything is in place except for the goddamned motherboard!
 
The Gene is pretty awesome and I'd be very happy to buy it if ASUS released a new version of it with USB3 and SATA6Gb/s support. I worry a little about the northbridge temperatures but that's a minor niggle.

I'm waiting for USB3 and SATA 6Gb/s support because, for one thing, USB2 is godawfully slow and the idea of being stuck with it for the next 3 or 4 years is not a pleasant one. I also like the idea of being able to charge compatible mobile devices more quickly over USB 3, etc etc... yes the devices aren't out yet but when they are I don't want my PC to be less useful than it ought to be. I remember how annoying it was to be stuck with only USB 1.1 support on a PC (I bought it at the end of 2001, not long before USB2 mobos were ubiquitous). That PC still sees occasional use with my parents so that limitation still matters even after all this time. Similarly this PC might only be my main PC for, say, 3 years but it won't stop being used after that date and by then USB 3 will be everywhere... not having it on a motherboard will be a pain in the backside. But yes I concede that the step from USB 1.1 to USB 2 was/is much bigger than that from USB 2 to USB 3.

Similarly I want SATA 6Gb/s support because I'd like to upgrade to a blazing fast SSD one day, if there are suitable SSDs available for a vaguely sane price. Now sure, that might not happen (adequate SSD speeds and prices, that is) but to even have the option of doing so I have to make the right decision at the time of purchasing the PC.
 
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GHarris said:
The Gene is pretty awesome and I'd be very happy to buy it if ASUS released a new version of it with USB3 and SATA6Gb/s support. I worry a little about the northbridge temperatures but that's a minor niggle.

I'm waiting for USB3 and SATA 6Gb/s support because, for one thing, USB2 is godawfully slow and the idea of being stuck with it for the next 3 or 4 years is not a pleasant one. I also like the idea of being able to charge compatible mobile devices more quickly over USB 3, etc etc... yes the devices aren't out yet but when they are I don't want my PC to be less useful than it ought to be. I remember how annoying it was to be stuck with only USB 1.1 support on a PC (I bought it at the end of 2001, not long before USB2 mobos were ubiquitous). That PC still sees occasional use with my parents so that limitation still matters even after all this time. Similarly this PC might only be my main PC for, say, 3 years but it won't stop being used after that date and by then USB 3 will be everywhere... not having it on a motherboard will be a pain in the backside. But yes I concede that the step from USB 1.1 to USB 2 was/is much bigger than that from USB 2 to USB 3.

Similarly I want SATA 6Gb/s support because I'd like to upgrade to a blazing fast SSD one day, if there are suitable SSDs available for a vaguely sane price. Now sure, that might not happen (adequate SSD speeds and prices, that is) but to even have the option of doing so I have to make the right decision at the time of purchasing the PC.
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With you there bud. I had a really solid Athlon XP2000 machine in regular use as a sever till recently and no USB 2.0 was a bind. Nearly slipped into the trap and ordered an i5 system on release myself but decided I would wait for the following:

USB 3.0
SATA 6GB/s
New Nvidia GPUs
SSD reaching the magic £1 / GB for a decent performance one

I can see all of these should happen in the next six months and my system will do till then. Hopefully a budget clocker of a CPU will turn up in the i series too ;)
 
Well,Intel aren't implementing either of these techs into their chipsets until 2011.

In the meantime you'll be buying boards with 3rd party solutions to cover sata 6G and Usb3.0.

Sata 6G I can see the use of for fast SSD's but for mechanical drives there's 0 gain as they cant even saturate the bandwidth with current sata 3G.

Usb 3.0 lol,who gives a monkeys if a phone gets charged 5 mins faster.

Personally I'll be waiting until these go into chipsets rather than them being provided by 3rd parties.
 
-VK- said:
Wait until early next year for something I cant say anything about. =)
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That's the most welcome noncommittal post I've ever read :D.

Seriously though, I am very grateful to get some good news. You just earned yourself a customer. Thank you.
 
So did you find what you want?
I haven't been able to so find h55/57 based mATX mobo with USB3/SATA6G
Might have to settle for the P7H57D-V EVO, as much as I really don't want ATX.
 
I recently found out that the motherboard of my dreams is going to take a lot longer to appear than I had thought. This discovery has broken my resolve, I've caved in and decided to buy an ATX motherboard after all (I chose to compromise on size rather than USB3).

However, in a bitter plot twist, the ATX motherboard I want is now out of stock everywhere! And I saw it in stock in a number of places just a week or so ago, but last week I still thought there was a mATX mobo with my name on it so I let it sell out. It never ends, I tells ye...
 
GHarris said:
I recently found out that the motherboard of my dreams is going to take a lot longer to appear than I had thought.
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So you have verification it will appear? Linky! :D

This discovery has broken my resolve, I've caved in and decided to buy an ATX motherboard after all (I chose to compromise on size rather than USB3).
However, in a bitter plot twist, the ATX motherboard I want is now out of stock everywhere! And I saw it in stock in a number of places just a week or so ago,
Click to expand...

Which one was that?
The Asus P7H57D-V EVO?

but last week I still thought there was a mATX mobo with my name on it so I let it sell out. It never ends, I tells ye...
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What a mATX H5x or Q5x with SATA6g & USB3? Where, where!

Thanks! :-)
 
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Sorry, been a bit wrapped up in my own component-seeking problems in the past couple of days.

In this thread I have only been referring to X58 motherboards. I know more or less nothing about H5x and Q5x motherboards, sorry. My failure to make that sufficiently obvious in my first post is one cause of my current difficulties!

jalyst said:
What a mATX H5x or Q5x with SATA6g & USB3? Where, where!

Thanks! :-)
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What I meant was, I have learned that the mATX X58 motherboard (with USB 3 support etc etc) I was looking for is not coming out very soon. So I have given up waiting for it, and tried to buy a particular ATX equivalent - The ASUS P6X58D Premium (Don't want the Gigabyte UD7 due to one or two issues I have with it). If I had only known what I know now a week or so ago, I'd have been able to buy the P6X58D as it was in stockuntil recently. But in spite of noting the arrival of P6X58D stock in the UK I let it pass me by because I was, at the time, still under the impression that there was a mATX motherboard on the way soon.

Looks like, despite compromising (in a big way, imo) on my choice of ideal spec and trying to make an order on Tuesday 26th, I'm going to have to wait until a week on Saturday (Feb 6th) to build my system. After a long time waiting I find that I have absolutely no patience left!

I'll shut up now, this is turning into a rant :eek:
 
gonna go with the The ASUS P6X58D Premium myself when it comes into stock.
any idea of the ETA for it? i think they mentioned it in a news post but i cant find it
 
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GHarris said:
Sorry, been a bit wrapped up in my own component-seeking problems in the past couple of days.

In this thread I have only been referring to X58 motherboards. I know more or less nothing about H5x and Q5x motherboards, sorry. My failure to make that sufficiently obvious in my first post is one cause of my current difficulties!

What I meant was, I have learned that the mATX X58 motherboard (with USB 3 support etc etc) I was looking for is not coming out very soon. So I have given up waiting for it, and tried to buy a particular ATX equivalent - The ASUS P6X58D Premium (Don't want the Gigabyte UD7 due to one or two issues I have with it). If I had only known what I know now a week or so ago, I'd have been able to buy the P6X58D as it was in stockuntil recently. But in spite of noting the arrival of P6X58D stock in the UK I let it pass me by because I was, at the time, still under the impression that there was a mATX motherboard on the way soon.

Looks like, despite compromising (in a big way, imo) on my choice of ideal spec and trying to make an order on Tuesday 26th, I'm going to have to wait until a week on Saturday (Feb 6th) to build my system. After a long time waiting I find that I have absolutely no patience left!

I'll shut up now, this is turning into a rant :eek:
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Damn!

I recall someone mentioning at HardOCP that there is an Asus mATX X58.
But I'm not sure if it had USB3 & SATA 6G....
 
From what I know, OCUK should have some stock of the P6X58D Premium coming soon but they're selling out quite quickly - Get those pre-orders in!

There is a mATX X58 motherboard, the Rampage II Gene, however there isn't on with USB 3 and SATA 6G at the moment. As for the question about H55 mATX with both of these features, again from what I can see there isn't such a model due to be available - Our P7H57D-V Evo is a nice model with both features, but is ATX.

I hope that helps to clarify :)
 
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